Darkness Falls
by AgentT
Summary: Vampires seem to know thier book lernin' when Buffy disappears after a spell is used by the fanged ones...


Buffy Summers walked along the street with her friends. All was quiet. There wasn't even wind blowing. It seemed like the world was dead. She sure hoped not. Mid terms were coming up, she didn't need an ugly demon ruining her concentration. Or did she?? 

Beside her, Willow was almost getting pushed off the sidewalk. They were in a horizonatal line, invoked by all five of them wanting to stand next to each other. 

Five being her, Willow, Xander, Oz, and Cordelia. 

Oz had insisted on moving away, but Willow gripped his hand tightly and he stayed next to her. Xander and Willow flanked Buffy. Cordelia was holding Xander's hand, although a bit uncomfortably as they were walking past the houses of a few high schoolers who would be sure to spill the beans on Cordelia's tranformation from football jock to Xander. 

"Oof." Willow said strangely as she tripped on a crack in the sidewalk and fell over. Oz caught her from falling to the concrete. 

"You okay?" He asked, his voice filled with concern. Willow nodded. She got back to her feet and raised her eyebrow at the crack. "Never knew that would happen. I mean, I always see it in movies." 

"We're on the Hellmouth" was what Xander had as an explanation. 

"Tripping over a crack?" Buffy said. "I think that constitutes as a 'hardly' in favor of pure coincedence." As they continued walking, Buffy couldn't help but feel strange. Something about that crack in the sidewalk. It felt wierd. She had no idea what was causing it, but looked behind her anyways, just to make sure she was just having insecure thoughts and that no hell beast was going to try to rip her head off. 

They approached the Bronze, the local hangout. Sort of grundgy, dark, and almost like a dive, but still the supreme place to hang out in Sunnydale. That was for ALL of Sunnydale's inhabitants, demons and vampires alike, as well as humans. 

"Ah, the fresh smell of...." Xander drifted off. "Of what?" "Diveiness?" Willow offered. Oz sniffed. Buffy could almost see the werewolf gears in his head working. 

"Smells like...like coffee. and there's a lot of perfume. And a vampire." 

Everyone stared at him. "Vampire?" Cordelia was the first to speak up. "I thought only Buffy could do that." 

"I don't know. I guess I can too." Oz said. There was a certain fear in his voice, like an uncontrolled power. She walked to a empty table and sat down. They all followed. 

"That's creepy." She said. 

"I agree." Oz said. "But then again. . . it could be helpful." 

"Yeah. Anyways, what about this vampire you smell? I see at least three here. I know there's got to be more." Buffy said, gazing around. One guy caught her eye. He was handsome, with dark hair and a smoldering glance. He smiled and then another guy came up to him and whispered something in his ear. He looked sharply back at Buffy disappeared into the crowd. 

"Got your eye on something, you little hoochie?" Xander said playfully. Buffy smacked him in the arm. "Ow! Hey, pay a little attention to the easily bruised here!" 

"Sorry." Buffy said absentmindedly. "That guy. I don't think he was a vampire, but he was wierd...I remember him from somewhere." 

"Where?" Cordelia asked. 

"I don't know." It was silent for a few seconds. 

"Well, who wants mochas?" Willow said suddenly. Xander jumped in surprise. "Don't do that!" He said. 

"Ok, geez, what's got you so jumpy tonight?" Willow asked with concern,. He was after all, her friend. 

"I don't know. I think we're all feeling the wierdness vibe tonight." 

"I agree." Cordelia said. "Like this morning when I was figuring out what dress to wear, I had this sense of deja vu, and I was looking at the Anna Sui red one and then I saw the eggplant purple Ralph Lauren and I just was thinking, 'how wierd is this' and...." 

Willow departed as Cordelia started rambling, captivating a shook-up Xander. She pulled Oz and Buffy with her and went to the bar. She ordered a mocha while Oz and Buffy ordered lattes. 

"So, what's with the impending doom?" Oz asked Buffy. 

"I have no idea. I guess I should talk to Giles about it." Buffy said. "The wierd thing is, it isn't a dream. I mean whenever I have these feelings of something happening, it's always in a dream. Not now." 

"Fully conscious. Or mostly." Willow handed Buffy her latte, and sipped her mocha. 

Buffy smiled. "Yeah." They returned to the table and Cordelia was still going on, this time about the different shades of yellow that can be found in scarves. 

"I think I'm gonna go look for some nasties to hunt." Buffy said, in more of an effort to get away from the story than to actually kill some vamps. 

"Great. Let's go. It's boring here." Willow said with a bit too much enthusiasm. Xander gave her a slightly irratated look. He knew Cordy's talking was often very boring, but for her to act that eager to get away.... 

"Great. I can tell you guys about my new shoes." Cordelia grabbed her purse. 

They headed out into the warm night air. Buffy took in the dark surroundings. Suddenly there was a scream. Buffy took out her stake and ran toward the sound. The rest of the Slayerettes followed, with Xander, Willow, and Oz pulling stakes out, along with holy water and crosses. Cordelia opted for pepper spray. 

"Cordy, it's not going to work." Xander said. 

"It better. I don't have a stake. It would punch holes through my handbag. And it's not really something you want coming out from your pocket." 

"Here." Oz handed her an extra stake. Buffy grabbed a vampire by the shoulders. He fell back and hit the brick wall of the building opposite him. 

"Ya know, I don't like you." Buffy said and staked the vamp in the heart. There were four other vamps with him. Two girls and two guys. Xander and Cordelia took one of the girl vamps who came charging at them and Oz and Willow fought the other one. The two male vampires were slowly approaching Buffy. 

"Slayer." One growled. Their victims, two girls and a guy, were slumped in a corner next to a dumpster. That couldn't be good for them. They had to get their blood sucked out AND deal with dumpster smell in the morning. But that was far from Buffy's worries. 

She kicked one hard in the chest and punched the other in the head as the other sprawled back. He quickly got up and grabbed Buffy from behind. He whispered something Buffy couldn't hear and the other vampire shouted something in a strange language. Three years with Giles had told her it was Latin. The vampire raised his hands and Xander looked up. A roaring clap of thunder brought all to attention, even the vampires pinning down Willow and Oz trying to grab her. Xander was staking the other one. 

He shouted something and the next moment. They were gone. All the vampires and Buffy. Oz fell on top of Willow as the vampire holding her down vanished. Xander looked up in surprise as the girl vampire disappeared. 

All was silent again. 


End file.
